central_victorywikiaorg-20200215-history
Decolonization
History Beginning with the emergence of the United States in the 1770s, decolonization took place in the context of [[wikipedia:Atlantic history|Atlantic history]], against the background of the American and French revolutions. Decolonization became a popular movement in many colonies in the 20th century, and a reality after 1945. '''Decolonization after 1918''' '''Western European colonial powers''' The New Imperialism period, with the [[wikipedia:scramble for Africa|scramble for Africa]] and the [[wikipedia:Opium War|Opium Wars]], marked the zenith of European colonization. It also marked the acceleration of the trends that would end it. The extraordinary material demands of the conflict had spread economic change across the world (notably inflation), and the associated social pressures of "war imperialism" created both peasant unrest and a burgeoning middle class. [[wikipedia:Economic growth|Economic growth]] created stakeholders with their own demands, while [[wikipedia:Race (classification of human beings)|racial]] issues meant these people clearly stood apart from the colonial middle-class and had to form their own group. The start of mass [[wikipedia:nationalism|nationalism]], as a concept and practice, would fatally undermine the ideologies of imperialism. There were, naturally, other factors, from agrarian change (and disaster – [[French Indochina]]), changes or developments in religion ([[wikipedia:Buddhism|Buddhism]] in Burma, [[wikipedia:Islam|Islam]] in the [[Dutch East Indies]], marginally people like [[John Chilembwe]] in [[Malawi|Nyasaland]]), and the impact of the 1930s Great Depression. The [[Great Depression]], despite the concentration of its impact on the industrialized world, was also exceptionally damaging in the rural colonies. Agricultural prices fell much harder and faster than those of industrial goods. From around 1925 until the [[European War|European]] and the [[Pacific War]]s, the colonies suffered. The colonial powers concentrated on domestic issues, [[wikipedia:protectionism|protectionism]] and tariffs, disregarding the damage done to international trade flows. The colonies, almost all primary "[[wikipedia:cash crop|cash crop]]" producers, lost the majority of their export income and were forced away from the "open" complementary colonial economies to "closed" systems. While some areas returned to [[wikipedia:subsistence farming|subsistence farming]] ([[British Malaya]]) others diversified (India, [[wikipedia:West Africa|West Africa]]), and some began to industrialise. These economies would not fit the colonial straitjacket when efforts were made to renew the links. Further, the European-owned and -run [[wikipedia:plantation|plantations]] proved more vulnerable to extended [[wikipedia:Deflation (economics)|deflation]] than native [[wikipedia:capitalism|capitalists]], reducing the dominance of "white" farmers in colonial economies and making the European [[wikipedia:government|governments]] and investors of the 1930s co-opt [[wikipedia:indigenous peoples|indigenous]] elites — despite the implications for the future. Colonial reform also hastened their end; notably the move from non-interventionist collaborative systems towards directed, disruptive, direct management to drive economic change. The creation of genuine bureaucratic government boosted the formation of indigenous [[wikipedia:bourgeoisie|bourgeoisie]]. '''United Kingdom''' depicting the [[Easter Rising]] of 1916]] The emergence of indigenous bourgeois elites was especially characteristic of the [[British Empire]], which seemed less capable (or less ruthless) in controlling political nationalism. Driven by pragmatic demands of budgets and manpower the British made deals with the nationalist elites. Across the empire, the general protocol was to convene a constitutional conference in London to discuss the transition to greater self-government and then independence, submit a report of the constitutional conference to parliament, if approved submit a bill to Parliament at Westminster to terminate the responsibility of the United Kingdom (with a copy of the new constitution annexed), and finally, if approved, issuance of an Order of Council fixing the exact date of independence. London dealt with the white [[dominion]]s, retained strategic resources at the cost of reducing direct control in Egypt, and made numerous reforms in the [[British Raj]], culminating in the [[Government of India Act 1935|Government of India Act]] (1935). Despite these efforts though, the British Government continued to slowly lose their control of the Raj. The end of the [[Pacific War]] allowed India, in addition to various other European colonies, to take advantage of the postwar chaos that had begun to exist in Europe during the mid-1940s. [[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi]], India's independence movement leader, realized the advantage in conducting a peaceful resistance to the British Empire's attempts to retake control of their "crown jewel". By becoming a symbol of both peace and opposition to British imperialism, many Indian citizens began to view the British as the cause of India's problems leading to a newfound sense of [[Nationalist Movements in India|nationalism]] among its population. With this new wave of Indian nationalism, Gandhi was eventually able to garner the support needed to negotiate with the British and create an [[Dominion of India|Indian dominion]] equal to the other dominions in 1947. Tropical Africa was only fully drawn into the colonial system at the end of the 19th century. In the north-east the continued independence of the [[Empire of Ethiopia]] remained a beacon of hope to pro-independence activists. However, with the anti-colonial wars of the 1900s (decade) barely over, new modernising forms of African Nationalism began to gain strength in the early 20th-century with the emergence of Pan-Africanism, as advocated by the Jamaican journalist [[wikipedia:Marcus Garvey|Marcus Garvey]] (1887–1940) whose widely distributed newspapers demanded swift abolition of European imperialism, as well as republicanism in Egypt. [[Kwame Nkrumah]] (1909–1972) who was inspired by the works of Garvey led Ghana to independence from colonial rule. '''United States''' A former colony itself, the United States approached imperialism differently from the Great Powers and Japan. Much of its energy and rapidly expanding population was directed westward across the North American continent against [[wikipedia:Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]], English territorial pretensions, [[Spanish Empire|Spain]], and Mexico. With eventual assistance from the [[British Navy]], its [[wikipedia:Monroe Doctrine|Monroe Doctrine]] reserved the Americas as its sphere of interest, prohibiting other states (particularly Spain) from recolonizing the recently freed polities of [[wikipedia:Latin America|Latin America]]. However, France, taking advantage of the American government's paralysis following the outbreak of the Civil War, intervened militarily in Mexico to consolidate a French-protected monarchy, and, for the same reason, Spain took the step to [[wikipedia:Spanish occupation of the Dominican Republic|occupy the Dominican Republic and restore colonial rule]]. The end of the Civil War in 1865 prompted both France and Spain to evacuate those two countries. Spain also fought several wars against Chile and Peru for the guano deposits of their islands. Economic and political pressure, as well as assaults by [[wikipedia:filibuster (military)|filibusters]], were brought to bear, but Northern fears of the expansion of slavery into new territories and the still strong Spanish Empire restrained the United States from early expansion into Cuba or [[wikipedia:Central America|Central America]]. America's only African colony, [[Liberia]], was formed privately and achieved independence early. While the United States had few qualms about opening the markets of [[wikipedia:Battles for Shimonoseki|Japan]], [[wikipedia:United States expedition to Korea|Korea]], and [[wikipedia:China Relief Expedition|China]] by military force, it advocated an [[wikipedia:Open Door Policy|Open Door Policy]] and opposed the direct division and colonization of those states even though Europeans kept doing it. , the first president of the [[Commonwealth of the Philippines]] (from 1935 to 1944)]] in [[Micronesia]] administered by the United States from 1947 to 1986]] Following the [[wikipedia:American Civil War|Civil War]] and particularly during and after the [[wikipedia:presidency of Theodore Roosevelt|presidency of Theodore Roosevelt]], direct intervention in Latin America and elsewhere expanded. The United States purchased [[wikipedia:Russian America|Russian America]] from the tsar and accepted the offer of [[Territory of Hawaii|Hawaii]] from rebel expatriates and seized several colonies from Spain in 1898. Barred from annexing Cuba outright by the [[wikipedia:Teller Amendment|Teller Amendment]], the U.S. established it as a [[wikipedia:client state|client state]] with obligations including the perpetual lease of [[wikipedia:Guantánamo Bay|Guantánamo Bay]] to the U.S. Navy. The attempt of the first governor to void the island's constitution and remain in power past the end of his term provoked a rebellion that provoked a reoccupation between 1906 and 1909, but this was again followed by devolution. Similarly, the [[wikipedia:McKinley administration|McKinley administration]], despite prosecuting the [[wikipedia:Philippine–American War|Philippine–American War]] against a [[wikipedia:First Republic of the Philippines|native republic]], set out that the [[Territories of the United States#Former unincorporated territories of the United States (incomplete)|Territory of the Philippine Islands]] was eventually granted independence. Britain's 1895 attempt to reject the Monroe Doctrine during the [[wikipedia:Venezuela Crisis of 1895|Venezuela Crisis of 1895]], the [[wikipedia:Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903|Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903]], and the establishment of the client state of [[Panama]] in 1903 via [[wikipedia:gunboat diplomacy|gunboat diplomacy]], however, all necessitated the maintenance of [[Puerto Rico]] as a naval base to secure shipping lanes to the Caribbean and the new [[Panama Canal Zone|canal zone]]. In 1917, "Puerto Ricans were collectively made U.S. citizens" via the [[wikipedia:Jones-Shafroth Act|Jones Act]], and in 1952 the US Congress turned the territory into a [[Commonwealth of Puerto Rico|commonwealth]] after ratifying the Constitution born out of United States Public Law 600. The US government then declared the territory was no longer a colony and stopped transmitting information about Puerto Rico to the United Nations Decolonization Committee. As a result, the [[UN General Assembly Resolution 748|UN General Assembly]] removed Puerto Rico from the [[United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories|U.N. list of non-self-governing territories]]. Dissatisfied with their new political status, Puerto Ricans turned to political referendums to let make their opinions known. Several internal plebiscites, non-binding upon the United States, proposing [[U.S. state|statehood]] or independence for the island did not garnish a majority in 1967, 1993, and 1998. As a result of the UN not applying the full set of criteria which was enunciated in 1960 when it took favorable note of the cessation of transmission of information regarding the non-self-governing status of Puerto Rico, the nature of Puerto Rico's relationship with the U.S. continues to be the subject of ongoing debate in Puerto Rican politics, the [[United States Congress]], and the [[United Nations]]. The Monroe Doctrine received the [[wikipedia:Roosevelt Corollary|Roosevelt Corollary]] in 1904, providing that the United States had a right and obligation to intervene "in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence" that a nation in the Western Hemisphere became vulnerable to European control. In practice, this meant that the United States was led to act as a collections agent for European creditors by administering customs duties in the [[Dominican Republic]] (1905–1941), [[Haiti]] (1915–1934), and elsewhere. The intrusiveness and bad relations this engendered were somewhat checked by the [[Clark Memorandum]] and renounced by President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s "[[Good Neighbor Policy]]." '''Japan''' Timeline of independence This list includes formerly non-self-governing territories, such as colonies, protectorates, [[wikipedia:Condominium (international law)|condominia]], and leased territories. Changes in status of autonomy leading up to and after independence are not listed, and some dates of independence may be disputed. For details, see each national history. '''18th century to World War I''' '''Inter-War Period''' =